UKIPT Galway, Day 1B: Levels 7-8 (300-600 75 ante)

9.10pm: Play is overThat's all she wrote for Day 1B of UKIPT Galway, the overnight chip leader is Dutch PokerStars qualifier Joris Ruijs who has 108,100. We think he's the only man to bag up six figures a full wrap of the days play will be in a new post shortly as will overnight chip counts. One late bustout was November niner Sam Holden. -- NW

8.50pm: Four more handsWith 15 minutes left on the tournament clock, tournament officials have announced that we will be playing four more hands. If it all goes a bit quiet here, it'll be because we're trying to figure out who are all the big stacks. -- HS

8.45pm: Abou Risk keeps on climbingNick Abou Risk is up to 68,000, he tweeted: 'Up to 68k after 4b AA and getting a vbet in on river w quads..' -- NW

8.40pm: WowI've seen some brutal suckouts covering the UKIPT but this one tops the lot.

Alan Gilmore had flatted a raise with pocket queens hoping someone would squeeze behind him and Brendan Mcdermott did just that with A♠7♠ moving all-in for 10,500, Gilmore made the call.

The first card out was the Q♦ at this point Gilmore was now a 95.4% favourite, the rest of the flop was 9♦7♣ giving Gilmore's a 99.59% lock on the hand. Even the 7♦ turn only increased Mcdermott's chance of winning the pot to 2.2% but lo and behold the case seven, the 7♥ arrived on the river! As you can imagine the table went mental and Mcdermott even asked the dealer to keep the cards on the table so he could take a photo! -- NW

8.15pm: Mallin survivesSuch has been the vastness of the field today that I've only just noticed that UKIPT Galway runner-up Trish Mallin is in the field, her second place finish the closest a woman has come to snagging a UKIPT title.

She's struggling right now though and in fact needed a kind river card to stay alive. She had moved in for around 3,000 with A♠6♦ over the top of a bet of 1,300 from Richard Sinclair, he called off the extra with A♣9♣ but the board ran 7♥A♦7♦3♦Q♥ and the two of them chopped the pot. -- NW

8.05pm: Free to galavant in GalwayYour time is up Barry Foley, Brendan McDermott, Sinem Melin, Shane Crosby, Maurice Silke, Bo Skoglund, Kjetil Myhr, Joshua Hart and Lewis Hunter. They are the latest casualties in what has lately become something of a blood-bath. We may get down to about 150 players tonight, which would mean more than half the field eliminated. -- HS

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600 ante 75

8pm: Premium versus premium versus premiumWhen three hands from the very top of the shop collide there's usually only one outcome - all-in! And this is exactly what happened on table four. Joshua Hart was the shortest stack (all-in for 9,600), the middle stack belonged to Philip Hardy, he was all-in for 15,700 and Lewis Hunter had them both covered, although not by much.

When the hands were turned over they looked like this:

Hart: A♥K♣Hardy: A♦A♣Hunter: K♠K♥

The board ran {2d]3♥5♥3♠7♥ and Hardy trebled up, Hart was eliminated and Hunter was left with 2,500 and exited shortly afterwards. -- NW

7.55pm: Schaffmann shafted by dead-eye DeadmanOliver Schaffmann just took a hit of about 23,000 - more than half his stack. The chips were always going to get in, given the hands we ended up seeing, but the manner in which they made it to the middle was kind of interesting.

Schaffmann opened to 900 from under the gun. Joe Grech called from a few seats round to the left. Simon Deadman, in the cut off, made it 2,300 to play and then Schaffmann bumped it again to 5,100. Grech got out the way, but Deadman five bet to what looked like 7,750.

Schaffmann now six-bet shoved and Deadman called.

Schaffmann: A♠K♣Deadman: Q♠Q♣

The board offered no help. It came 4♠9♣J♥[10d]3♦ and the players shook hands as the dealer counted Deadman's stack. He will take close to 50,000 into the day's last level. Schaffmann, a runner up in Nottingham on season one, has about 13,000 left. -- HS

7.50pm: Silver running on fumesMax Silver's stack has been decimated and he's now in micro stack territory. 'Just lost 35k pot aipf AKs no good against A5o. Left with 2.5k,' he tweeted. -- NW

7.40pm: O'Dwyer takes a hit; Cleary clearly delightedThere was about 22,000 in the pot and two players looking at a board of 3♦J♠6♥4♥3♥. One was Steve O'Dwyer and he was facing a huge decision. David Cleary was all in for something like 23,000, and Cleary was also going through some chatter with O'Dwyer.

"Where are you from?" said Cleary."Philadelphia," said O'Dwyer."How much does a pint cost there?" Cleary continued."I don't know. I don't spend much time there."

O'Dwyer mulled over his choices before saying something that began with: "I didn't come all this way to..." I think he must have said something that amounted to "fold" at the end of that sentence because he tossed in the call. "I'm going to pay you off," he said.

Cleary was delighted to hear it. He tabled 7♥5♥ for not just a straight and not just a flush, but a straight flush. "I loved that turn," he said.

O'Dwyer handed over the chips and now has 15,000-ish to continue his Galway adventure. Either that or a quick wander to the High Roller event, starting tomorrow. -- HS

7.35pm: Team Online updateBoth members of Team PokerStars Online who started today are still in but their tournaments have gone in opposite directions. Mickey Petersen is up to 48,000 from the starting stack of 15,000, whilst Grzegorz Mikielewicz is down to 10,600. -- NW

7.15pm: Chasing the leaderIt's highly likely that Thomas Finneran's day 1A leading stack of 89,600 will be overhauled today. With a couple of levels still left to play, there are a handful of players with stacks bigger than 70,000 - and a handful more very well placed to make a run.

In the former category is Joris Ruijs, a PokerStars qualifier from Holland. He has about 75,000 at the moment, which is exceptionally comfortable. In the latter is Steve O'Dwyer, who is flying under the radar a little here.

O'Dwyer lives in Ireland these days as a poker refugee from his native United States, and is more accustomed to playing the huge buy-in EPT, WPT or WSOP events. He has at least four six-figure live tournament cashes to his name, plus vast sums won online. And lo and behold his class is showing this afternoon. O'Dwyer has about 53,000 at this stage. -- HS

7.05pm: Catching up with a championI caught up with UKIPT Champion of Champions winner Richard Sinclair during the last break and he told me about his tournament so far. 'I got up to 19,000 early but then ran jacks into aces for half my stack. To be fair to my opponent he played it well,' he said graciously before adding: 'I was down to 5,000 but doubled up just before the break when a guy who had just lost a big pot moved all-in for about 4,500 with 8♦7♦ I moved all-in with A♥T♥ and it held.'

The Scot has got 25 big blinds, he came back from less to win the Champion of Champions so don't put it past him to make a comeback in the last two levels. -- NW

7pm: Last two levelsHere we go then, the final two levels of the day. At this stage there are fewer than 250 players remaining from the 400 who began this flight, and the action will only get more perilous in these last two hours.

The race is on to see who can overtake yesterday's leader, Thomas Finneran. See if you can stick it out for another couple of hours. -- HS

The answer to that perennial question of what a bunch of poker players smoking cigarettes outside a hotel look like